Anyone know how many spins around the inner orbit it takes to re-qualify On Stranger Tides (Movie 4) multiball after the first time you play it? It's bugged me for a long time noticing that a lot of shots don't advance that multiball and I took the glass off and tested it tonight. First time through all shots advanced it and only had to cross the first opto. But after running the multiball I sent about 5 or 6 more balls around the inner orbit and while they registered for qualifying a chapter and made the sound effect for the shot, they never advanced the multiball. Does it take a bunch more shots around that orbit to re-qualify the multiball? This has bugged me for a long time now but I only finally decided to stop and investigate tonight. I looked at the Game Settings and there's a difficulty level setting for that multiball but it doesn't have any information about what the setting means. The manual on page B-34 doesn't give any detail on the setting either. Anyone know?

Edit: realized you’re asking about the second time. So I’m not sure.

bought my LE nib from pinballs.com in late march and he still had 1-2 after my sale. There was another place in Canada I found a LE nib but went with the US company, well because I'm from the US. I would say late April early May when they started to become hard to find nib. Then wanna say it was Aug/Sep that we started seeing the nib popping up on the marketplace from private sellers

I believe you can look up the number it requires second time around in game settings. One of the screens lets you change the req for multiballs. For example Tortuga is 50, 100, 150 repeating. You could change that to 25, 50, 100 if you wanted. Pretty sure there is settings for all the multiballs in there. If I remember right it should be 8 loops for the first mb. If I was to bet I would bet that the second time around is 16 loops. Every multiball I can think of the req double after the first go

I recall reading in some documentation that the loops are only counted when they are non-consecutive. I take this to mean some other switch needs to be hit in between. I sometimes hit the bumpers while trying to do the loop consistently, which I believe allows it to count toward the total.

What he said^^^^^
I was in that boat of waiting to see what happened with the two mechs and literally just trying to find one and play it. I told myself after buying X-men sight unseen that I would never buy another pin without having at least played it a few times. By the time I found one and played it the nib games had all dried up. Distribution was nonexistent. I was lucky enough to find a basically nib standard locally a month or so ago. However JJP cutting production so quickly on a game that had just started to find a foothold and sell really surprised me. I’m in the group that hopes for a remake but deep down if I’m honest...probably not going to happen.

Honestly the biggest thing that would probably hold back another run of POTC is licensing. I’m guessing the license is up on the game so if Jack wanted to make more he would have to redo the license. I thought I recall him at TPF last year saying they had like 1 year left? I could be mistaken.

If they had the parts and decided to do another small run, I’d buy some new LE version for up to $11k so long as all other physical mechs remained the same or better. I don’t care if I have to tweak the game. It’s worth it.

I saw one on route here as early as August last year, and another probably September, October. I'd imagine there are far more home owners than routed one's, so these were obviously being shipped and out in the world, not hidden in some cave in the middle east never to be discovered.

Stern devours so much of the market, and JJP has production issues to get up to full speed at times. I see those two as more at hand than even indifference towards the game.

If people wanted to play this game, it was out there, not hidden. Wonka had similar initial backlash too. JJP games arrive with insanely robust code and features, get torn apart for what users don't see. Stern ships barebone code, still sells shit tons.

This is the markets fault, not ours or jjp's. Stern loyalists exist, and are detrimental possibly in not just spreading bad word of mouth on JJP games, but also worse yet, never being willing to buy them.

This is confusing to me! How many LE’s did Jack say would be built when this game was released? If that numbers has not been met and he decided to resume the games production why would he not just build the rest of the LE’s?

That's a bit extreme.

Honestly, like I said above, I feel the shitposts come from people that would never consider buying JJP, most of all. That kind of mindset feels so determined, spiteful, vindictive. I wish people that never intended to buy, would not chase a game down, thread to thread, trying to kill it.

But people do need to have rational critical responses. Rarely in life do people surmise those thoughts, then leave them be. It's always got to be a battle of will attrition. My view is better than yours, more write, so I'll post again till you understand that. That's my biggest issue with pinside, not criticism, but ego dominance.

A game I thought got blasted ridiculously last year was Black Knight. That game got hounded. It's simple, basic, yet competent and fun. For as indifferent as I am regarding Stern games, man that got shit on. Munsters had, sadly, good reasons to get blasted....

Oktobefest, man that was another case of getting shelled by posters, podcasts, etc. Game never had a chance, and is as mechanically robust as any other release last year, maybe even more than Wonka.

POTC at least had loyal fans and owners fight for it. It eventually had incredible word of mouth. And the existing stock sold through fairly quickly, tough mech and playfield issues aside.

This game dying, has to be more a matter of BOM, and JJP wanting to take steps forward, rather than back. I doubt, but hope, that Eric's next game will be as robust feature wise as Pirates. Doubt it though....as Wonka clearly was a step back.

Pirates. Too pricey for it's own good. Too good to not have 2000 units out there....

There was no LE limit to my knowledge. JJ LE's map to Stern Premiums. The CEs are Stern LEs and are limited. When he re-runs it, they'll be LEs, and likely YBR pricing. He can take the edge off that sting by getting giant Jack Sparrowface reduced on the playfield and making it a cast montage of the key players, or maybe even the skull and crossbones from the backglass. Wouldn't hurt as much to pay $2k more than the initial LE run if you're getting a perk in a slightly different playfield and hopefully cooler art package tweak that puts it between the original LE and the CE. And at $11,500 for an LE, there's no way even a short run of 400-500 more units would not be profitable.

It's really puzzling to me the kickback on these threads about doing more. If they have to order parts anyhow to support the existing games, including quite a few LE playfields, still pending, why not do a larger run? I'm sure they are thinking about it. Jack told me in person recently, no plans on the table, but maybe down the line. To me that means the door is open.

He needs to get GnR out the door and see how that does, so that's where his forward energy is going right now. Understandable, but I think another jjPotC run will happen, just not at the same price point.

Well I need another one back in my collection someday, that’s all I know.

Checking feverishly every other day for code updates, but.. no

I just did a bunch more glass off testing sending the ball around with my hand. After running On Stranger Tides multiball once, I wasn't able to advance progress for it again until all other multiballs had also been run once. I was tapping targets and shooting other main shots in between inner loops, and it was registering those inner loop shots for scoring and playing chapters but it wouldn't advance the multiball progress.

However, once I ran the other 4 multiballs I was able to get it to start advancing On Stranger Tides again. But even that came with a catch. It would only advance if a shot was sent through the chest lane before an inner loop shot. I'd tap targets and send it through other main shots before the inner loop, but it wouldn't advance. The only way it seemed to advance was if the chest lane in particular was hit before making the inner loop. By doing that I got it to advance to the next to last position, and then it seemed like there was another catch because suddenly when trying to advance to the last step it wasn't enough to hit the chest lane before the inner loop. I had to fiddle with hitting a bunch more shots before the inner loop finally advanced the MB to the last step. It might have been that all other main shots needed to be hit before advancing that last step though the inner loop, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, I don't get why people waste time and effort in a thread repeating the same things over and over about why they don't like a machine and even arguing/debating with people who do like it. It just doesn't make any sense. In the past year there have been a lot of games introduced and only one grabbed my attention as a game I'd like to have in my basement, but I felt zero desire or need to chime in on any threads about the other games to let people know a machine wasn't one I'd be looking to buy. I don't understand what someone doing that thinks he/she is going to accomplish or what they get out of doing it.

So confused by your post. You state zaphX statement is "a bit extreme" then you basically reiterate Exactly what he said? lol Just with lots more words. And furthermore in my opinion Munsters and Octoberfest were not pushed aside because they were as you say "mechanically robust", they were simply Bad Games! I bought and sold both as did Many and felt almost robbed at the loss of time and money. But thats how I felt. As I do agree with zaphX I didn't however make it my life mission to crap on the game for others I simply moved on.

I’d just hope that it’s finally a jjp machine that retains its value. I know it’s a selfish intention.

All other ones I’ve had I’ve always lost money on. Even better quality jjp machines Vs stern counterparts just don’t retain their value the same. Exact reason I didn’t get a wonka.

With less numbers, great game play and collector demand then *maybe* (crosses fingers) they’ll hold most of their value in the next few years.

If.... you have a history in Pinball you should know that Bally/ Williams back in the day used proto and early production models to test gameplay and reliability. On many machines mechs were removed or redesigned. This used to be business as usual.
Finally in 2017 JJP did the same with Pirates and the outcome was to remove/adjust 2 mechs.
I, like any pinball fan, was dissapointed at first, especially about the removal of the tripple, illuminated, bi-directional spinning discs. But it took me only 0.01 second to realise there was still a hell of a Pinball machine left. And it surprised me I seemed to be a great minority: many pinheads condemned JJP for doing what B&W used to do with every title: test it first.
Whatever the reasons are or were to not produce more: Pirates is my nr.1. Probably for the next decade or more. Close 2nd is Alien, which I acquired a few month ago. Minimal collection of 2, maximum fun factor for me.

Unfortunately the best way to go into this hobby (like most hobby's) is to assume you will loose money. Like wine or art every once in a crazy blue moon a fun purchase will increase in value but for the most part you should buy to enjoy or share with friends/family. From what I have seen though JJP as a whole actually hold a fair long term Minimal loss.

99% agree with you only 1 minor mistake was they were taking Orders and deposits on what was shown played. If like (dare I say it....) Deeproot they made it clear this is Only a prototype we are simply play testing I Think the tone and expectations may have been lower. Thats just how I seen it and my deposit anyway.

So with all the interest in a new run of Pirates we will see another run of WOZ!!

Jack calls Woz his "evergreen" pin, and I believe it. They'll be making WoZ for a long time, even if the gaps between runs get longer as JJP portfolio expands.

You want to make money on a pin, easy. Sell your Pirates right now.

I stated Munsters had good reasons to get blasted. Incredible art. Code that didn't relate to the game at all, features that were bate bare mechanically, and man I've seen some fogged up lower playfields.... Eek.

I mean, regarding zaphX contrary to what he says. As in, let people express negative viewpoints, that's fine, more than fine, but dedicated sandbagging on multiple threads, isn't. It's one thing to be vehement about how you feel about a game, it's another to actively picket it on multiple threads, over and over again. But...if you feel a game is crap, we shouldn't be thankful it was simply produced....which is what I feel he was implying, we should critically express viewpoints, leave it at that, and not buy the game.

On the subject of POTC, it was never crap, and never under value, for what the price was, it was simply a victim of production issues, and again, most likely a distancing of licensing....due to the shitbagging, (from what sounds unfair to me) of Johnny Depp. He was a hot ticket, then cancer due to #metoo. That and high BOM, = dead POTC production.

Yanno, you and zaphX, have like 1/250 Pirates currently. Talk about a Pirate's Booty!

Side note, Oktoberfest isn't a bad game. It's just peculiar, theme unfriendly, and suffered from a controversy involving the monkey backglass, long timeframe for release, and then initial shitty animations. I'd rank it up there top 3 releases with JP2, Wonka, and itself. That said, last year wasn't a stellar year, compared to the prior year.

At the moment I’m sitting on 0.2% of the POTC supply.

I was meaning to ask, are you keeping both?

If so....

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This is great investigation. I need more info. Code seems iffy here.

Np, I have a buyer lined up for the LE.

I’d be lucky to get back the same what I paid for my pirates in Australia. I watched a couple up for sale take a surprisingly long time to sell for about $1k below retail. I’m not looking to make money. Much easier ways than buying and selling pins.

I lost $3k on my hobbit.
I’ve so far lost atleast $2k, if not more, on dialed in.

I came in assuming I’d lose *some* money just like any hobby.

My point was that if the pin wasn’t remade then maybe secondary market demand would remain higher thus eventually I’d only experience minimal losses and not the level of hobbit/dialed in. As I said it was a purely selfish desire should I decide to exit the hobby entirely.

Getting ready to start a restoration project on my Addams Family so the POTC acquired a new topper.

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Now if you can just get Keith to put an "IT'S SHOWTIME" easter-egg in jjPotC...

Ha ha ha, that's great. No, just needed a place to put it for awhile as the LE topper won't fit on it right now due to head room and I thought why not. Looks pretty good.

arguably looks better

Anyone interested in a better topper? I've been working on some ideas and they are also lightly integrated with gameplay. It wouldn't be cheap but it would be easy to install and provide some fun interaction.

How about we do a kickstarter to get some new code instead...

Hey, at least we have a completed manual! Poor Wonka folk.

Believe me, if we could get access to modify the code I'd be all over it. The code request thread I started has at least 15+ good changes that need to be made. Maybe we'll get to a v1 one of these days.

Apologies if this was mentioned previously in the thread, but I’d guess at this point they want to wait and release the code update alongside the new WiFi capabilities. Based on previous comments from a while ago and listening to Keith on the SWL 24hr charity stream, my hunch is that the code is complete and they want to roll it all out together.

I don’t think it makes sense to release the code if the new new WiFi capabilities are on the horizon and it is the new method or behavior you would like most of your customers to adopt. Perhaps this applies to all their games. If we see an unusually long wait without any updates for ANY of their games, is that an indicator that the WiFi is almost ready?

Could anyone in the beta test provide any info without getting in trouble?

Count me in

I'm in, mine is really limited
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You make me curious. When you say it is fun, I assume that it will please me. So I am very interested.

SE owner here. I’d be interested.

Wonka has a manual now.

You have my attention.

They are working on the WIFI code for all the pins at the same time, probably trying to keep that code "module" the same across the board for the pins to keep it under control. They have not included any additional game related code with it for us. They aren't revealing anything about other game code updates. It does make it super simple for code updates though.

I have been told by JJP that the manual is not fully complete as more work is still needed for section D, the wiring schematics portion. As soon as it is finished I will get a hard copy printed as I have for all of my JJP games; a really useful tool for me.

Key word was completed.

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Scott, anything you can offer the curious people here. Any pictures?

I can't wait to hear about it either! I would love to see a talking skull and cross swords like in the potc ride at Disneyland right before you go down the first waterfall. "Come seeking adventure with salty old pirates eh? Sure you come to the proper place. But hold on, with both hands if you please. Thar be squalls ahead. And Davy Jones waits for those who don't obey he he he"

Anyways, it would be perfect for attract mode and call outs. Wouldn't be cheap and probably a pain to make. Just a pipe dream!

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Could it be.......?

https://texaspinball.com/tpf/eric-meunier-tpf2020/?fbclid=IwAR2US8V_6QO1PkxLrvcipGdVriF7FmL-t1wSVZY_KrkrXHPxRlL1YtqF3vk

Nope, but Heater is on the right track. Pirate skull with movement, ships, gold, lighting interaction with game. I am researching a few elements and how best to accomplish them.